Algeria Warns Death Count Will Increase

By

David Gauthier-Villars in Paris and

Cassell Bryan-Low in London

Updated Jan. 21, 2013 7:59 a.m. ET

Fears rose of a growing international death toll from the four-day terrorist attack on a remote Sahara desert natural-gas facility in Algeria, as more details emerged of the siege that has fueled new concerns about the threat posed by North Africa-based terror groups.

The Algerian government said Sunday it expects casualties to rise beyond the 23 hostages and 32 militants it has said were killed. Algerian authorities haven't disclosed nationalities of the 23 hostage victims, and the challenge of identifying victims was sure to be difficult, with reports over the weekend of deaths in fiery explosions and charred remains at the scene.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense and British Defense Minister Philip Hammond held a joint press conference in London on Sunday to provide updates on the Algeria hostage crisis. They reported that the situation had ended with more deaths. Photo: Getty.

Algerian television broadcast footage of several freed foreign hostages getting onto a bus at the In Amanas natural-gas plant. Photo/Video: AP.

The Algerian statement came as the discrepancy between the number of hostages confirmed dead by their governments and those still unaccounted for became clearer. "I strongly fear that the death toll will be revised upward," said Algerian Communication Minister
Mohamed Said
on state radio Chaîne 3.

As details from the terrorist attack in Algeria continue to trickle out, multinational companies look to provide safety for employees working in politically unstable countries. Sam Olsen of Kroll Advisory Solutions talks to the WSJ's Deborah Kan about companies and the risk assessments they should be making.

Other big questions loomed over the aftermath of the siege. One is what the militants had planned to do. Norway's foreign minister,
Espen Barth Eide,
said Sunday the militants had tried to destroy the gas facility but failed and instead began to execute hostages.

"On Saturday, the terrorists tried to light up the facility and blow it up, but they didn't succeed," Mr. Eide said in a TV interview. "They managed to light a little fire. They then began executing hostages, and special forces intervened."

The militants ability to so quickly take control of the facility and rig explosives that could create such carnage--while in the middle of a firefight with the Algerian military--also raised the question of whether they had prior knowledge of the plant and its layouts and had accomplices inside the facility.

Timeline: Hostage Crises

There also were intriguing clues on Sunday that at least one of the hostage takers was Western. One 35-year-old Algerian employee who escaped the scene said he heard the terrorists speaking different Arabic dialects and one who didn't speak Arabic well, but had far better command of English. "He had white skin and a blonde beard," recalled the Algerian employee, who escaped a few hours after the attack began. Mauritania-based news agency ANI has quoted the terrorists as saying they are of various African and Western nationalities, including Canada along with Libya, Mauritania and Mali.

Algerian television said as many as five of the terrorists were alive and had been detained by early Sunday, and others were still being sought.

While the Algerian army was still combing the site for explosives militants allegedly planted, foreign governments and companies continued to seek information about the fate of some of their citizens.

One British man killed was 46-year old Paul Thomas Morgan. "We are so proud of him and so proud of what he achieved in his life," his family said in a statement. "We are devastated by Paul's death and he will be truly missed." No other details were given about him by the UK Foreign Office, which released the statement. He joined Frederick Buttaccio of Katy, Texas as the only hostages governments had identified by name as slain by Sunday. Up to eight Americans were still unaccounted for.

U.K. Prime Minister
David Cameron
said three British nationals were confirmed dead, three more were feared dead and one British resident was also feared dead. The U.K. government said the majority of British survivors are now home or on their way home and that it is working closely with the Algerian authorities to repatriate the dead bodies. Algeria, France and Romania also have announced that some of their nationals were among the victims.

A few of the missing were identified Sunday. Five Norwegians were named as unaccounted for by their employer
Statoil
AS
A, including the stepfather of the country's International Development Minister. "It is with grief and despair that I have found out that my mother's husband, Tore Bech, is feared killed in the hostage drama in Algeria," said the minister, Heikki Holmas, in a statement.

ENLARGE

Algerian army trucks are seen near Ain Amenas on Sunday.
Associated Press

Norway's Mr. Eide, the foreign minister, said earlier Sunday that he had not given up on the five missing Norwegians. "We have to cling to hope, but also face that there may be bad news" he said.

As of Sunday night in Tokyo, Japanese engineering company
JGC
Corp.
said 17 of its employees, including 10 Japanese, remained unaccounted for, and that "multiple deaths" were feared.

There have been some frustrations among officials in the U.S. and U.K. about how the Algerian authorities handled the situation. But publicly they have been tempered in their tone as the effort to repatriate bodies and survivors continues.

"Of course, people will ask questions about the Algerian response to these events," said Mr. Cameron, speaking to broadcast media Sunday. But, he added, "the responsibility for these deaths lies squarely with the terrorists who launched this vicious and cowardly attack. "When you are dealing with a terrorist incident of this scale—with up to 30 terrorists—it is extremely difficult to respond and get this right in every respect."

An estimated 800 people from at least 12 nationalities worked at the In Amenas gas installation near Algeria's Libyan border. Some hostages were freed during the previous assault attempt by Algerian forces while others escaped. According to the Algerian Interior Ministry, 685 Algerian workers and 107 foreigners were freed during the incident.

Saturday's final raid marked a bloody end to the siege by militants with suspected ties to al Qaeda's regional affiliate. Playing out deep in Algeria's desert, the drama focused international attention on al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, and related groups that have spread across a vast territory that encompasses parts of Mali, Algeria, Libya and Chad.

The militants who claimed responsibility for seizing the Algeria complex, believed to be led by led by a Mali-based Algerian fugitive,
Mokhtar Belmokhtar,
has said it was retaliation for France's decision to send combat troops to support neighboring Mali in its battle against an al Qaeda-backed insurgency, and has warned of more to come. On Sunday, his group said the attack had been conducted in retaliation for the war carried out by "crusader countries" in Mali.

On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Algiers also warned companies in Algeria it feared security fears were now extending outside the Sahara. In an E-mail to U.S. oil majors, it mentioned "threats of planned kidnapping efforts targeting westerners in Algiers, as well as in Northern and Eastern Algeria."

The siege began early Wednesday when the militants took over the In Amenas complex in southeast Algeria. Carrying guns, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and explosives, the militants splintered into two groups as they made their way into the industrial facility, according to several statements by employees. One seized the base's living quarters and the other took control of the nearby gas-processing plant.

Freed hostages have said the militants moved easily through the premises, suggesting the operation was thoroughly prepared, prompting Algerian authorities to question whether they had accomplices inside the complex, said a person familiar with the matter. A European official said intelligence gathered on Mr. Belmokhtar's group of militants shows the attack was prepared several weeks in advance.

By Thursday morning, the Algerian government had dispatched special forces, including its elite GIS group, to the site. One of their first moves was to disconnect all mobile-phone transmitters and scramble satellite-phone connections to prevent hostage takers from communicating with the outside world, said
Pierre-Antoine Lorenzi,
chairman of French private-security firm Amarante. Algerian authorities positioned Russian-made helicopters around the facility to ensure militants couldn't escape with hostages. They also made their position clear: "We won't respond to any claim by terrorists and refuse any negotiations," Algerian Interior Minister
Dahou Ould
Kablia said.

Mr. Lorenzi, whose company is in charge of the security of several gas installations in Algeria—though not of In Amenas—said his staff was able to speak to some hostages on Wednesday, including to retired French soldier
Yann Desjeux,
who died in the siege.

ENLARGE

French soldiers on antiterrorism patrol near the Eiffel Tower on Sunday. French forces are helping fight Islamist militants in Mali and French citizens are believed to be among the victims in Algeria.
Abaca Press

The siege moved into a new phase later Thursday, when the Algerian helicopters opened fire on a column of pickup trucks driven by militants with hostages. The Interior Ministry said the militants were trying to escape into the desert. An Algerian official said the government couldn't allow that to happen.

Some Western officials have a different account. "Thursday, when the first fighting began, these cars that many believed were going out of the area, they were not," Norway's Mr. h Eide told Norwegian television Sunday. "They were going from the housing area to the gas-production facility," he said. Algerian authorities would not allow the hostage takers to gather up at the production facility, because they believed that would have strengthened them, Mr. Eide said. Many hundreds of hostages were freed during this operation, but some were killed, and a number of hostage takers were killed, including the leader of the operation.

On Friday, the Algerian army succeeded in capturing at least one of the hostage takers, Algerian media reported. But at the end of Friday, the situation remained unclear, with Algerian officials silent on the number of deaths and of remaining hostages and the state of the rescue mission. Western government officials looked for information and hinted that they weren't certain what was happening on the ground.

That began to change early Saturday afternoon, when reports of what the Algerians called a "final assault" filtered out. By nightfall on Saturday, it was clear the siege had come to an end, as government officials like Mr. Cameron began to touch base with the Algerians. Saturday evening, the Algerian government released its provisional death toll.

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